He also presented plaques and certificates of appreciation to the marketing and plant operations departments for a job well done.

Al Zamel praised the efforts and commended the executive management, senior officials and all the employees for their dedicated efforts and hard work in making GPIC the leading petrochemical company in the world today.

General manager Abdul Rahman Jawahery said the record load was the company's second shipment to Incetic Pivot Ltd, an Australian firm which has long term supply contract with the Bahraini company.

Incetic Pivot is the most significant importer of granular urea in Australia and its present contract with GPIC entails supply of more than 200,000 tons of urea to them during 2007.

Jawahery also added that Incetic Pivot is the largest fertiliser producer and distribution company enjoying more than 50 per cent market share in Australia.

Australia imports around 1.2 million tonnes of granular urea, most of which is imported from the Arabian Gulf region, and is regarded as a very important strategic market by all the major urea exporters in the region.

He said GPIC has the unique distinction of being amongst a handful of companies in the world who have fully satisfied all product and quality related standards including AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Services) standards set for granular urea exports to Australia.

Hence, the GPIC product is readily acceptable and enjoys complete confidence of its Australian customers, he said.